Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] A great work like he did in my life. So what happened for me when my heart really changed towards the subject of giving was around the time my wife and I were dating. At the time, we were unsaved, we didn't know the Lord. And at that time, the Lord kind of started drawing my heart to him. And I felt this need to join a church, a local congregation.
[00:00:27] And so during that time, my wife and I went.
[00:00:31] We visited quite a few church. We were staying in Mufulira, but we were visiting churches here in Kitwe. So we visited quite a few churches. And about two, if I can remember correctly, about two Sundays before we came to Gospel Central here, we had attended another church. And right after the message, the.
[00:00:53] The pastor, the preacher did a call for giving. And I remember I felt so uncomfortable during that time that they were calling people to give because they were almost pinpointing people like, specifically, you should give, you should give. And I remember telling my wife, like, this feels so uncomfortable. I don't think we're coming back here then. About two weeks after I visit Gospel Central for the first time, and this is my first time, I'm unsaved. And for those of you, some of you might know, Uncle Justin, he was the one preaching that day. And the title of his message was plain and simple, giving.
[00:01:32] And I remember thinking to myself, oh, no, here we go again. Evan whispered it to my wife, and she was like, just stayed. But anyways, the Lord did a work in my heart that day.
[00:01:45] He broke down the walls that I had towards giving. And before I even get into the message today, I want to start us off in praying. I want to pray that the Lord will do the same thing in our hearts. If there's any walls that we've built up towards the subject of giving, I want to trust that the Lord, through his Holy Spirit will come and break down those walls and that he will also lead us into his heart. Forgiven that as we look at giving, we will see that this is what God really has on his heart. And so, Lord, I want to thank you this morning.
[00:02:19] I want to thank you that we can gather like this, Lord. And I want to pray for every heart that is sitting here today, Lord. And even family members that they will go and interact with. Lord, I want to pray for any wall against giving, Lord.
[00:02:35] I want to pray for any wall against you, Lord.
[00:02:39] I pray that through your Holy Spirit, you will come and do a work in our hearts to break down those walls, that we will see your heart in this matter of giving.
[00:02:50] We thank you Jesus.
[00:02:52] Amen.
[00:02:54] So I'm going to get stuck into it.
[00:02:57] I'm talking about giving now. As I was thinking about what title, what to title this message, I initially thought I was going to call it Giving is Worship.
[00:03:09] But as I was preparing and praying and you know, seeking the Lord, I kind of felt that actually worship is giving.
[00:03:18] And the reason I say that when you look throughout the Bible, from the Old Testament, all throughout the New Testament, you actually see when there's an act of worship, there's also an act of giving involved.
[00:03:31] If you look at the Israelites, when they went to go and worship the Lord at their temple, the Jewish people, they had to bring sacrifices, they had to bring animals, they had to bring grains, they had to bring something and give it to the Lord.
[00:03:46] There was an act of giving involved in their worship. We see in the middle of the Bible, King David, he was a man who gave. When he wanted to worship the Lord and build a temple for him, he decided to give more than anyone else.
[00:04:04] Oftentimes when there was a celebration and they won victory, David would make sure that he offers as much as he can to the Lord.
[00:04:14] But we also see that David didn't just stop at giving his finances.
[00:04:21] David gave himself completely.
[00:04:25] There was a time that the ark was being brought into the city of David, Jerusalem. And as it was coming, David was dancing before the Lord.
[00:04:36] So much so that it was causing an embarrassment. His wife felt so embarrassed, she said, look at you David, dancing in front of these Israelite girls, making a fool of yourself.
[00:04:49] And David said, you know what?
[00:04:51] I am willing to give even more than this.
[00:04:54] If you thought that was silly, I am willing to give so much more to the Lord.
[00:04:59] That was his heart posture.
[00:05:02] We see in the New Testament. In the book of Acts, when Peter preached the word, 3,000 people got saved. And these people, their salvation was marked by their act of giving. In Acts chapter 2, verses 42 to 45, it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings. They broke bread together and they shared everything. They had everything in common. We read in chapter four that actually some people went and sold lands that they had. Rich people sold their lands and brought the money to the church so that there would be no needy people amongst them.
[00:05:40] We see this act of giving. We see the Apostle Paul teaching about giving. Romans 12:1.
[00:05:48] This is going to be the center focus of our message today. Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, offer yourselves up as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord.
[00:06:07] We see here, Paul paints this picture Very plainly, if God has shown us mercy, offer yourselves up as living sacrifice. That's an act of giving.
[00:06:22] So even in the New Testament, we see when worship.
[00:06:26] In fact, he says that this is true and proper worship.
[00:06:30] So when we see worship, we see giving.
[00:06:33] The two go hand in hand.
[00:06:36] And why do we give?
[00:06:38] Why do we give?
[00:06:40] We learn this from God himself. We learn this in the Trinity.
[00:06:46] The Trinity sets the example for us when it comes to giving.
[00:06:51] God himself. God the Father. Many of you are familiar. We even read it in the prayer this morning. John 3:16. Who knows what John 3:16 says? Don't show it up there.
[00:07:03] Let them guess.
[00:07:05] John 3:16. What does it say?
[00:07:12] He what?
[00:07:14] Yes. He gave his only begotten Son so that we could have what eternal life with him.
[00:07:24] God gave.
[00:07:27] He starts the process of worship.
[00:07:30] He gives.
[00:07:32] He gives so that we can worship. Because we have eternal life.
[00:07:37] Because he gave his son, we have relationship with him. And because we have relationship with him, we can give. We can worship the Lord.
[00:07:48] See, God had his son. How many of us here have children?
[00:07:55] Yeah. So for those parents that have children, can you think of sacrificing your son, of killing your son?
[00:08:06] I don't think so.
[00:08:10] I wouldn't. I would find it really difficult.
[00:08:14] But God gave his son. And he poured out the punishment that we deserve because of our sins, because of our shortcomings, because of our failings to honor him and to worship him properly.
[00:08:27] He smited. He killed his son on that cross. He poured his wrath so that he doesn't have to do it to us.
[00:08:37] God gave.
[00:08:38] But we see he's not the only one that gave.
[00:08:43] Christ gave.
[00:08:46] Christ gave up his life for us.
[00:08:49] He was the same one saying that if I really wanted to, I would call a whole legion of angels and they will destroy the whole earth. And then I don't even need to go to the cross. But he says, it's not my will, but the Father's will.
[00:09:05] In the Garden of Gethsemane, he's praying, he's sweating blood, and he's pleading, lord, if it is your will, please let this cup pass from me.
[00:09:16] Pleading, lord, please, this is difficult. He's not giving the excess. He's not giving what is, you know, easy. He's giving what is difficult. And he says, father, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:09:31] Christ gave up his life willingly.
[00:09:34] He had the opportunity not to do it, but he gave his life. And so if we are to be a people that Paul calls us to be, in Second Corinthians, 5, 20. If we are called to be at ambassadors of Christ, we are to be a people that give.
[00:09:55] We are to be a people that want to partner with the Lord. And that's what giving is. Giving is an opportunity for us to partner with the Lord.
[00:10:07] God doesn't need our money.
[00:10:09] God is in control of all things. He's sovereign.
[00:10:13] But it's an opportunity for us to say, lord, I can do something with you.
[00:10:19] How many of us we talked.
[00:10:21] Some of us have children here.
[00:10:24] I have a little girl, Maya. She's about 2. She can barely speak at this point.
[00:10:29] Right?
[00:10:30] So to paint a picture for us of what it's like for us to partner with God, it's like me asking Maya to come and help me work on the car.
[00:10:40] Maya can't fix the car all by herself. She doesn't even understand what the car does properly.
[00:10:46] Right?
[00:10:47] So for me to say, oh, Maya, you've built this car is foolish, actually.
[00:10:54] But she gets to partner with me. I can say, maya, come here, hold this spanner for Daddy.
[00:11:01] And you know what? She is so excited when she gets to hold the spanner for her dad.
[00:11:07] Her world is like, yes, I'm being helpful. She's not doing anything.
[00:11:13] I'm the one fixing the car. But you know what? She's partnering with me. And that's what it's like with us and the Lord when it comes to giving. God doesn't need our money, but we get to partner with him just like Maya gets to partner with me.
[00:11:31] And you know what? When we partner with the Lord, we're saying, lord, we value you. We value your sacrifices.
[00:11:40] You see, the beautiful thing is that when God struck his son on the cross, he also raised him from the dead, and he seated him at the right hand. This morning, we're singing, lord, reign in me. Christ reigns over all things, and he's coming back to judge the world. Those that don't believe in him, he's coming to judge with a fierce judgment. But until that time, we get to partner with him.
[00:12:09] We get to bring ourselves to Him.
[00:12:12] And how do we partner with him, very practically, is we bring our gifts, God. And I'm not just talking about financial gifts. Look, we do need the financial gifts. But first and foremost, I want to talk about. God has placed in everyone a spiritual gift.
[00:12:29] Oftentimes when we come to church, we leave it up to the man of God to do church, right? We go about our week, we forget about church. We forget about the people in the church. And then we come on Sunday and we're like, let's receive. That's not church.
[00:12:44] Church is bringing my gift to the Lord. If you can sing, we need singers. If you can play the keyboard, we need people to play the keyboard. If you can serve tea and coffee, that's what we need.
[00:12:59] And you know what? God doesn't need that. But what a privilege it is for us to partner with him. Oh, also finances. You see, as God's body goes out and fulfills the call that he asks us to do, to go out and make disciples of all nations, those gifts come together, and as a body, as a church, we go out and make disciples of all nations. But if we want to see churches like this started, we need money.
[00:13:25] The reality is we need money for this building. Tea and coffee cost money.
[00:13:30] Tech cost money.
[00:13:32] You know, buildings cost money. So actually, yes, you know, the church does need money, and God is faithful to provide. But we have an opportunity to partner with God.
[00:13:44] And so if we want to see more churches planted, we need to be moved to giving because we partner with the Lord.
[00:13:52] And that's my trust this morning, that the Lord will come and move our hearts as we partner with him. But for us to get to a place where our hearts can truly be moved, to worship God truly and properly, we first have to deal with our own hearts.
[00:14:12] We have to deal with the idols in our hearts. A couple of weeks ago, we learned that what wages war against us, is it not your desires?
[00:14:22] There's desires in us that wage war against what our hearts really want.
[00:14:29] It wages war against the Lord in our hearts.
[00:14:34] And so we have to deal with those issues.
[00:14:39] Jesus himself said, you know, if you want to see where your heart truly lies, what your heart is truly given to look at where you're spending money.
[00:14:52] For those of you that want the scripture reference, it's Matthew 6:21.
[00:14:56] For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.
[00:15:02] I've never heard anything more true than this in my life. For those of you that don't know, and this might be a shock, I am still a football fan. Not as big as I used to be.
[00:15:14] When I was a teenager, I used to love watching football. When I grew up, I didn't feel the need to pay for DStv.
[00:15:21] The idol wasn't that big in my heart, so I stopped watching it. But the other day I was walking in a market, this must have been about a month or so ago, and there was a guy selling football jerseys, and he asked me, what team do I support?
[00:15:38] And I support Chelsea because they have a lot of money and they can buy all the best players.
[00:15:46] But, yeah, basically I support Chelsea, but I haven't been following them for a while. And this guy was trying to sell me the latest Chelsea jersey.
[00:15:55] And I got the shock of my life to. To hear what he was charging for this jersey was something like 500 or 600 quacha. Now, it might have been because I'm. I'll say it because I'm a Muslima, it must have been pushed up a bit. But still, even if you take the muzungu tax off, it's high.
[00:16:16] I'm thinking, wow, like, Even if it's 300 quachar, what I'm wearing, there's nothing what I'm wearing Now that costs 300, right?
[00:16:27] So I was thinking, who.
[00:16:30] Who in their right mind is paying this much money for football jerseys? And then as I started walking away from there, you know what I started to notice?
[00:16:38] How many people have football jerseys? The latest ones.
[00:16:43] But to make matters even worse, as I've been interacting with people, I often have people tell me how they struggle to get to church on a Sunday or how they struggle to give to this thing or that thing while wearing football jerseys.
[00:16:58] Then it hit me there. Where your treasure lies, your heart will also be.
[00:17:06] So if our hearts aren't given to the Lord, it will show in our finances.
[00:17:10] Oftentimes, if you're wondering if I have idols in my life, look at your budget. What's the first thing on there?
[00:17:17] You know, for some people, it might be school. And we might say school is a good thing, but it's the first. And then we do groceries. I need to feed myself. Or I know for ladies, it's nails. I've often not understood that nails comes before food.
[00:17:33] And then lastly, down there somewhere is what is left over. Taj.
[00:17:39] Yeah. Isn't that how we do budgeting? I. I definitely did that. I'm not going to lie.
[00:17:45] So we have to deal with our heart.
[00:17:49] And so I want to tackle this morning from my own experience what my heart was. And I'm hoping that as I share that, we will pick something that maybe you can relate to. And so when it came to my heart, one of the things that I really struggled, that held me back from giving to the Lord was the thought that I made my own money.
[00:18:11] That because of my skill, my intellect, my education, that I worked hard for my money and I earned it.
[00:18:20] And therefore, because I had earned it, and I sweat like I sweated. I don't know if that's an English word. Sweated, SWE sweat. I don't know. You guys know what I mean? I sweat for my money, right? And because I sweat, I wanted to make sure that I'm not wasting this money. And this might be even more so for people that you know who are earning money, but you don't have extra.
[00:18:43] You're not saving anything. What you're working for is just feeding your family.
[00:18:47] You know that. That when it comes to giving, it's going to be even more difficult to give because you felt like you've worked hard for it and it's going somewhere already.
[00:18:58] And that was my posture. I struggled to give.
[00:19:02] And the thing that needed to change in my heart, I had to realize that, number one, the fact that I woke up this morning was God's grace.
[00:19:13] The fact that I had the education that I had was God's grace.
[00:19:18] The fact that I have an able body and can move around and go to work is God's grace.
[00:19:24] The fact that my mind is saying and I can think logically is God's grace.
[00:19:32] The fact that I found the job was God's grace.
[00:19:37] The fact that that company made money and was able to give me money at the end of the month was God's grace.
[00:19:44] It's not because I've earned it, and it's definitely not because I deserve it.
[00:19:51] It's God's grace.
[00:19:53] God's grace that I have anything in my life. The fact that I have a car is God's grace. The fact that I have a wife is God's grace. The fact that I am here standing before you, wearing the clothes that I'm wearing is God's grace. It's not because I deserved it, and it's definitely not because I've earned it. And when that shifted in my heart, I started to see my money as not my own.
[00:20:17] And when it came to giving to the Lord, I was actually just giving back what he had already given.
[00:20:22] That had to change. In my heart.
[00:20:25] One of the other things that really held me back, even after settling this in my heart, one of the things that I really struggled. Now I know that my money is not my own money. I still struggled to give it to the church because I felt like the church wasn't using my money properly.
[00:20:41] I felt like they could be spending it so much wisely, so much better.
[00:20:47] And if you have been in a church where maybe there's been abuse of the finances, this might be even more relevant to you.
[00:20:55] And basically what that was showing in my heart is that I don't trust The Lord, that is the essence of my heart posture. I. I don't trust that who God has placed above me, God has truly placed them there.
[00:21:12] I don't trust that God is sovereign and will bring them to account one day.
[00:21:19] I don't trust that God will build his church with imperfect people.
[00:21:24] And so that had to change in my heart.
[00:21:27] It had to change before I could properly say, you know what? I'm entrusting this money not to people, but to the Lord himself.
[00:21:35] My heart posture is God, I'm giving to you, not to my pastor or my elder or to the church. I'm giving to you, Lord, I'm giving this money to you. And I trust that you will honour this money, and I trust that you will honour my giving, my worship.
[00:21:56] And so that had to change in my heart.
[00:22:00] One of the other things that had to change in my heart, and I know this is a big thing amongst many churches, is theological pride.
[00:22:09] The fact that I thought I knew something about the Bible, the fact that I thought, you know, I could argue whether is tithing New Testament relative or not, it's a very big topic. And I'm not even going to address that here because I don't know, there's been a lot of good debates whether, is it biblical, is it not?
[00:22:31] But the fact that I thought I knew something stopped me from giving because I thought I knew better than, in actual fact, God. But then the church that I was a part of or is a part of, and the Lord had to humble me, said, it doesn't matter. Like, if you're trying to look for a way not to give, you will find it.
[00:22:55] But the Lord's heart is that we give. That is what worship is. And so he had to humble my heart. And oftentimes, when I've spoken to people that tithe and believe in tithing, oftentimes they always feel like they need to give more than the tithe. They never feel like they should stop the tithing.
[00:23:14] And when I've had these conversations, you know, is tithing biblical? And what they're like, you know what? I don't care if it is or not, because it's not about, you know, is it a principle? Is it not? Is it.
[00:23:28] It's actually, I want to honor the Lord with my money. And so the tithe is an easy way for me to start. And oftentimes they feel like I need to give more because I've become comfortable and they feel like giving should be sacrifice.
[00:23:41] And so through interacting with people in the body, the Lord Started to change my heart.
[00:23:47] And even now, as I stand here, I don't think it matters if tithing is biblical for New Testament church or not. The thing is, it's a principle throughout the Bible. We see in the Old Testament, God mentions tithing, Abraham mentions tithing. And the reason why tithing is a practical place to start, because it's small enough not to hurt you, but big enough to still be a sacrifice to the Lord.
[00:24:11] And so, yeah, so that had to change. In my heart, I had to see that these things were holding me back from truly worshiping the Lord because I thought I had some sort of pride, because I thought I had some knowledge.
[00:24:32] I struggled to give. Giving was a burden to me even in that space, because there were times that I would give, but it always felt like a burden.
[00:24:42] And when the Lord changed my heart, I can truly say that the Lord has changed my heart. And I see there is joy in giving.
[00:24:51] There is joy when I get to partner with the Lord, not because I get to do something special, but actually because he has done something special.
[00:25:04] He gave for me. He gave his life up. He held nothing back.
[00:25:10] I get the option not to bring my whole salary to the church.
[00:25:15] You know, it's not sinning, not bringing my whole salary to the church.
[00:25:21] God gave everything.
[00:25:24] And you see in the Bible that the Lord honors those that have that posture and the right motives, like the widow who gave her two points. It's not the fact that she gave everything.
[00:25:36] Her heart was moved.
[00:25:38] Her heart was moved to give everything. Because her trust was that I'm giving to the Lord. This money is not my own, it is His. And where it came from, he will give back.
[00:25:51] That is, the Lord commended her for that kind of worship.
[00:25:58] And I want to trust this morning that the Lord is going to move in our hearts as well, that he will deal with those idols and that we will be a people that can give and that we will be known by our giving. I'm not just talking about financially, I'm talking about everything.
[00:26:14] I'm talking about if you have a car. I'm talking about if you have gifts. I'm talking about if you do have finances and you want to partner with the Lord. But it won't be from a place because I've preached it this morning or because churches tell you you have to give.
[00:26:29] But it will come from a place because God is worthy.
[00:26:33] God is worthy. And because he's worthy, I want to give.
[00:26:38] I desire to give.
[00:26:40] I want to partner with the Lord.
[00:26:43] Some of us here might not be in a financial position to give much financially, but you're in an abundant position to bring your gifts.
[00:26:55] And so I just want to pray for us this morning. Then I want to invite Emmanuel up to come and lead us into a time of giving. We have offering boxes here at the end of the service. We'll also display other ways if you want to give electronically.
[00:27:11] But I do want to say this. I don't want anyone to come up and give, because I've preached this message on giving because you feel com. Like under compulsion, but that you will give cheerfully because Christ is worthy.
[00:27:28] And we're going to sing a song just that, that Christ is worthy. And I want those lyrics to minister to our heart.
[00:27:36] I want us to really pray if you're not able to give financially, I want to pray that the Lord will stir our hearts to bring our gifts. How can we bring our gifts? And so as we go into this song, as we worship the Lord, we have offering boxes here to give. Thank you so much for. For letting me share. And I trust that, yeah, the Lord will. Will move in our hearts.
[00:28:01] Thank you so much.
[00:28:09] It's just the upstanding as we sing.
